TJ Garrish, CEC, Executive Chef of L’Hirondelle Club of Ruxton, shares how he has transformed his operation by prioritizing staff needs.
In recent months, we’ve seen an unprecedented number of job openings, yet finding staff to fill those positions has been a struggle for many. During COVID people lost jobs or began working from home. This gave many workers a chance to reevaluate the many sacrifices they’ve made in pursuit of the mighty dollar. Many of these workers have decided to retire or choose a career that will allow them to focus more on family while also better balancing, physical and mental health.
I feel employees began to see the many flaws built into our capitalistic society. People began to wonder why they should burn themselves out with work while putting their personal life, family, and goals aside for companies and managers who only cared about the bottom line. Gone are the days of pensions. Today, we are lucky to see a 3% match.
In our industry, we push long hours and glorify working weekends as a badge of honor. We have all seen the social media post of chefs standing over trash cans eating whatever they can throw together. What you don’t see is that chef being deducted an hour for that “lunch.”
We’ve all worked for chefs who preached about needing us during busy times and weekends. But the past two years have opened many eyes. Chefs have begun to talk about the old ways of working to the bone for little-to-no reward. Yet, I still come to the same conclusion. We talk about it, but how many are truly moving to provide a work-life balance for the industry? How many chefs are giving employees a four-day week, or alternating weekends?
This industry has taken some of the most precious moments from me. My daughter was born 11 weeks early. And yet everyday during that time I went to work. My day consisted of waking up, going to the hospital to see my daughter, coming to work for a 10 to 12 hour shift, then driving back to the hospital. It wasn’t until she was born that I started to realize what others are so upset about. Before that moment, I had always just worked as much as possible to get ahead.
I began to question why I was programmed to believe in this work ethic. I started to think of a way to provide my staff and myself with more flexibility. I have always had a good system set up at L’Hirondelle, which provided training and guidance of prep sheets, recipes, and so much more throughout the day for the staff to reach the set goals quickly and daily. I saw our staff having fun and relaxing some parts of the day. The old-school chef in me wanted to scream, “If you have time to lean, you have time to clean.” But I didn’t.
Instead I went to the office to work up a mock schedule that would give my cooks even more flexibility.
I started with my sous chefs. I reduced their hours to a four-day work week. I then talked to line cooks about what was going on in their lives and what could be better. I asked them what could I do to help. I had two cooks that said they would love to have Sundays off. I adjusted their schedules to better suit their needs. I was able to give them every other Sunday off.
Today the staff respects what I have tried to do and how I have tried to give them a better work-life balance. They have become so much more motivated to put in the work, when need be, knowing that those hard days will pay off.
Since becoming Executive Chef of L’Hirondelle, I have lost two sous chefs. It was unfortunate that it happened at the same time. One retired and the other I sent to another club to grow and learn in a different environment. When they left, I promoted two line cooks to sous chef. It was definitely a learning transition, but the risk I took was worthwhile because they cared and understood that I care about them.
I have lost a few line cooks and I’ve replaced them when they decide to leave the industry. Every line cook I currently have has reached out to me telling me they wanted to come work at L’Hirondelle for the culinary and educational opportunities here, but also because they want to work for someone who respects them and offers fair wages and a proper work0life balance. Two of my line cooks reached out from other clubs in the area. They had heard about what we are doing and how the staff is treated. I worked hard to build a family and we are constantly growing and changing for the better.
I think my mentality has change quite drastically. Don’t get me wrong, there is a labor shortage impacting this industry and many others. But we can only control what we can control and sometimes we have to ask hard questions like why would someone want to work at my club and what can I provide an employee that others are not? For some, it’s the educational elements and for others it’s the flexibility.
My benchmark is this: I ask myself if I would want to work for me? More often than not, there are time when I say no. That’s when the real work begins so that we change our kitchens and become the type of leader we would want to work for and with.